Such a fuel cell module may have a fuel cell, a residual gas burner and a heat exchanger. The fuel cell is used in the conventional manner to generate electric current from an anode gas containing hydrogen and from a cathode gas containing oxygen. Hydrogen-containing anode waste gas of the fuel cell and oxygen-containing cathode waste gas of the fuel cell can be burned or reacted in the residual gas burner to reduce pollutant emissions and to convert chemically bound energy into heat. For example, heat can be extracted from the burner waste gas formed by the combustion reaction in the residual gas burner with the heat exchanger and transferred to another educt. It may be an internal educt, e.g., the cathode gas fed to the fuel cell, or an external educt, e.g., a heat exchanger medium of a heating circuit or cooling circuit of a motor vehicle, in which a fuel cell system operating with the fuel cell module is arranged.
Such a fuel cell module is characterized by an extremely compact design, as a result of which it is especially suitable for use in motor vehicles, because it requires comparatively little space for installation. Thermal expansion effects may be problematic in such a compact design. The individual components of the fuel cell module pass over a very broad temperature range especially during the running up of the power and switching off of a fuel cell system. It is especially critical in such situations that different components of the fuel cell module are heated up and cooled down at different rates. For example, the temperature of the heat exchanger may rise considerably faster than that of the fuel cell. The connections between the individual components within the fuel cell module are exposed to high stresses because of these thermal effects. The service life of the fuel cell module may be reduced hereby.